The 24th Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport from March 8-10 will have the smoothest start of any major 2013 Australian motor race meeting.
The 'Classic', which is again a finalist for the prestigious Motorsport Event of the Year in the 2012 International Historic Motoring Awards, will be the first car event to take to the completely resurfaced 4.55km Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit.
The resurfacing at an estimated cost of $3 million will take place during December and January, further enhancing Australia's premier historic motor racing venue.
The three-day Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport on the Moomba Long Weekend will again feature official practice and qualifying on the Friday (March 8), with two races for each category on both the Saturday and Sunday (March 9 and 10) of the weekend.
'Big Banger' sports cars will be the feature category of the 2013 'Classic' with a 30-minute race staged on the Sunday for the cars that thrilled spectators around the world in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
This will be supported by celebrations on and off the circuit of a number of major motoring milestones:
- 100 years of the Aston Martin sports car
- 60 years of the Chevrolet Corvette
- 40 years of the Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7
- A tribute to the late Carroll Shelby, with a number of the Ford-powered Shelbys, Mustangs and Cobras he built, and the Cobra replicas he inspired, on display.
Shelby also had a major Aston Martin connection earlier in his career, co-driving a DBR1/300 sports racing car with Roy Salvadori in 1959 to bring the British sports car maker its only Le Mans victory.
Shelby was diagnosed with angina the following year, ending his racing career.
Porsche will also return to the Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport with a special display of sports cars from its Stuttgart Museum - a fitting prelude to its official return with a factory team to the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 2014.
The Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport remains one of the largest and most respected motorsport historic motorsport events on the international calendar.
It has been selected as a finalist for the second consecutive year in the 'Historic Motorsport Event of the Year' category in the prestigious International Historic Motoring Awards.
The 24th annual Phillip Island Classic staged by the Victorian Historic Racing Register is again being supported by Shannons, CoolDrive and Penrite, with race officials supplied by the Victorian Mini Club.
